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Stocks - Nervous Market Treads Water Ahead of 2nd Quarter Earnings

Investing.com - Stocks were waiting on Monday for the second-quarter earnings season to shift into high gear.

That should start Tuesday when financial giants JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) report results. The two stocks, off 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively, were the laggards among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today.

In the meantime, the S&P 500 was up 0.02%. The Dow was up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.17%. All three indexes (and the Nasdaq 100 Index) hit record intraday highs after the open, then slipped back and came to finish with small gains and closing records. In the S&P 500's case, 0.02% was a gain of 0.53 of a point.

Monday's market opened with what were described as mixed results from {{|Citigroup}}. Earnings beat estimates, but profit margins narrowed. Citi opened lower but recovered its losses by noon and slipped to a 0.1% loss on the day.

But the damage was done to JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS). Also weighing on the Dow was Boeing (NYSE:BA), off 1% after a Wall Street Journal story Sunday suggested that the 737 Max could remain grounded until after the New Year. As it is, many airlines are scaling back schedules because they can't use the planes. United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), a key Boeing supplier, also fell 0.4%.

Tuesday is a big day for financial company earnings. In addition to JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) also report before the open. Other reports are due from Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) and railroad giant CSX (NASDAQ:CSX).

This earnings season is projected to be frustrating. Factset is forecasting a 3% decline in earnings for S&P 500 companies, based on pre-announcements of potential earnings misses and possible upside surprises. But of the 24 companies that reported by the end of last week, 20 had earnings surprises and 17 reported better-than-forecast revenue.

Utilities, technology and real estate shares led the market; energy, financial stocks and industrials were laggards.

Weighing on the market was a higher dollar, which depressed a wide array of commodity prices. Crude oil and grains fell. Gold, copper and silver futures were higher. Interest rates moved lower. The U.S. 10-Year yield fell 0.7% to 2.09%.